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  1. Earth

    A late arrival for platinum and gold?

    An extraterrestrial source may explain why Earth's mantle holds more platinum, gold, and certain other elements than it should.

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  2. Earth

    Strange crystal birth found in mine

    Deep in a Wisconsin mine, researchers have uncovered a new way for crystals to grow in nature.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Old polio vaccine free of HIV, SIV

    Three laboratories analyzing remaining samples of polio vaccine used in the late 1950s find that none contains any human or simian immunodeficiency virus, or chimpanzee DNA—making polio vaccine unlikely to be the cause of the initial HIV outbreak in central Africa.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Stem-cell transplant works on lupus

    Severe lupus can be reversed with a transplant of the patient's own bone marrow stem cells, after they're allowed to mature outside the body, and medication that neutralizes self-attacking immune cells.

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  5. Astronomy

    Ulysses makes a return trip

    Just as the sun has reached the stormy peak of its 11-year activity cycle, the European Space Agency's Ulysses spacecraft has begun its second and final pass over the sun's poles.

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  6. Astronomy

    Magnetic-mapping mission resurrected

    The European Space Agency successfully launched Cluster II, a group of four spacecraft that will fly in tandem to generate a three-dimensional map of Earth's magnetosphere.

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  7. Astronomy

    Spirograph in the sky

    Some 2,000 light-years from Earth, an elderly star has ejected its outer layers to form a puffy, gaseous cocoon that resembles a "spirograph" pattern.

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  8. 19269

    This article on using magnetic fields to map and possibly treat brain disorders contrasted sharply with the article a few pages earlier about magnetic fields inducing cells to develop tumors (“Cells proliferate in magnetic fields,” SN: 9/23/00, p. 196: Available to subscribers at Cells profilerate in magnetic fields). I would strongly suggest that both the […]

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  9. Snap, Crackle, and Feel Good?

    Magnetic fields that map the brain may also treat its disorders.

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  10. Math

    Unlocking Puzzling Polygons

    Proof settles a wickedly prickly question about unfurling crinkly polygons.

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  11. Hormone dulls a tongue’s taste for sweets

    The hormone leptin may suppress the tongue's ability to taste sugary substances.

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  12. Animals

    Snapping shrimp whip up a riot of bubbles

    High-speed video and fancy math demonstrate that snapping shrimp make so much noise by popping bubbles.

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